Tuesday, 8 September 2009

T-Mobile, Orange Plan Merger

Deutsche Telecom and France Telecom are planning to merge their UK operations to create the country's largest network with 37% of the UK mobile market.

That's going to create some interesting challenges for the company as the two UK operations occupy very different market positions. T-Mobile being data friendly and offering quite simple plans. Orange with a bizarre array of animal-themed packages and a less smartphone friendly attitude.

Then of course there's the rationalisation on the already beleaguered High St. I can't see the new operation supporting multiple branded shops and some of Britain's city centres can ill-afford more retail closures.

What will the new operation trade as? Personally I like the concept of Orange-T but I'm guessing we'll see a rebrand under a new name and logo not unlike O2's creation from Cellnet and Genie some years ago.

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